


Shall I Stay?

by witchqueencirce



Series: The Wayhaven Chronicles: Maxine Quinn [2]
Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:35:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26865253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchqueencirce/pseuds/witchqueencirce
Summary: Adam du Mortain had never suspected that checking in on Detective Maxine Quinn after he hears a suspicious noise coming from her room at The Warehouse would lead to their first kiss.
Relationships: Detective/Adam du Mortain, Female Detective/Adam du Mortain
Series: The Wayhaven Chronicles: Maxine Quinn [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890658
Comments: 10
Kudos: 36





	Shall I Stay?

He doesn’t fully know what wakes him that night. 

Maybe he hasn’t been to sleep at all.

Adam hadn’t been sleeping much since he and Maxine had spent that night watching the fireworks at the carnival.

It’s been difficult to get the feeling of her small hand in his out of his mind. And tonight was no different. He stares at the ceiling of his room, raises his palm to the ceiling and attempts to flex the feeling out of his skin. He stares for a while at the back of his hand, then turns it over to the palm. It looks the same as it has for the past nine centuries, and yet… yet there is something different all the same.

He knows it’s indulgent - a dangerous indulgence - to let his thoughts linger on her, on the way it had felt with her skin against his and the pounding of her speeding pulse in his ears.

He’d never have reached for her hand himself, as much as he had wanted to, had been burning to. He’d been trying to focus on the fireworks, on anything but her beside him, when he’d felt her fingertips brush against the side of his palm.

He’d chanced a glance down to her, her own eyes cast up to the sky, but the barest of smiles on her lips as she gave his palm a squeeze of reassurance.

_He wanted -_

It didn’t matter what he wanted, Sanja’s words rang over and over in his mind. Had played an incessant loop every single time he looked at Maxine.

Allowing himself to fall _would_ only hurt them both. He’d only hurt her, and that would be the last thing he’d ever want to do.

He’d been doing his best to avoid Maxine in the weeks since.

But she has been staying at the warehouse more and more often after the night that Bobby Marks - _Adam hated thinking of him_ \- had showed up at her door late at night during their previous case. 

He’s noticed it, because of course he has. He’s told himself that it was because he was keeping track of the members of his unit. _He wasn’t sure if that was a lie._

But she’s been staying less and less at her apartment.

And it certainly made it harder to avoid her.

This week had been six out of seven days.

_Not that Adam was keeping track._

_Well, perhaps he was._

The only exception was the day she’d said she was going to the movies with Tina. Her apartment was far closer than the warehouse by the time it would have ended. 

It was practical of her.

But he’d worried about her until she’d stepped into her office the next morning at the Police Department. The very same office where barely moments before Nate had been telling Adam that he knew the reason why Maxine had been around the warehouse more often.

Of course she’d told Nate about the discomfort she’d felt in her own home since then that night, the way Bobby had pushed his way in unwelcome.

That brought Adam’s blood to a boil.

It wasn’t caused by Nate’s knowledge. No, he was glad his friend and Maxine had such a close friendship that she felt comfortable confiding in members of Unit Bravo.

 _It was Bobby bloody Marks_.

He finds it hard to imagine what Maxine had ever seen in him. Adam had had the displeasure of being in Bobby’s company more than once.

_How Maxine could have ever been with him, loved him, let him touch her..._

_Not that any of that was any of Adam’s business._

He came full stop at that train of thought, closing it off before he could go any further.

And then there were the unexpected appearances of Falk in her bedroom mirrors and the thralls that had pushed through her front door and right into Murphey’s trap.

It made Adam overly-protective. Perhaps more protective than his job required. But she was staying less and less at her apartment, spending more time with the Unit, more time with him as much as he - _sometimes half-heartedly_ \- tried to avoid it.

And then there’s a loud thud from outside his room, towards Maxine’s at the end of the corridor.

He’s outside her door before he fully realizes his feet have taken him there.

It’s barely milliseconds before the other three vampiric members of his unit join him in the hallway. They’re all in various state of dress - Morgan clearly still awake from the way she is dressed in the same clothing she wore when they sparred in the training room earlier in the evening, a cigarette hanging from her right hand.

_Or perhaps she sleeps that way._

Adam knows that if he asks, he won’t get an answer. At least not a satisfying one.

Farah quirks a brow at Adam when it becomes quite clear that he was first there, his fist already hovering over the solid wood of Maxine’s door. He contains the urge to roll his eyes at the subtle insinuation - similar to the looks from her that he’s had to endure since their arrival in Wayhaven.

He also attempts to ignore the small smile on Nate’s lips.

All this in the seconds since the noise and he brings his attention back to the door in front of him. He knocks a little softer than he’d meant to - not wanting to wake her if they’re overreacting.

But in Wayhaven, overreacting usually wasn’t an option.

He hears a whimper come from the other side.

“Detective Quinn?”

_Silence._

And then another whimper.

His hands grips around the doorknob, maybe he’ll have to break down the door. It isn’t the first thing of hers he’s broken - _and he regrets each one_ \- but maybe… maybe he should try the knob first.

She hasn’t locked it - _he makes a mental note to chastise her for it later_. Simply because she’s at the end of the hallway where four vampires also reside, doesn’t mean she can let down her guard. She’s stubborn to a fault and he knows it will cause an argument. He cannot allow her to jeopardize her safety.

But now... now she’s potentially in distress.

He peers into the crack as he slowly opens the heavy wooden door, not wanting to alert any intruders any further to his presence than he already has with the knock. He knows his senses should have picked up anyone else but her, but he finds she muddles his senses when he’s around her.

But then he sees her inside.

He turns and waves the others away. She’s vulnerable, but not in the way that a group is needed for. She doesn’t need them to see her like this. It’s his duty as Commanding Agent to ensure she’s alright for better or worse. His burden. That’s what he tells himself as a strange pain makes it way across his heart as the others turn to leave.

She’s curled up at the head of her bed, limbs curled around her pillow as if it’s the only thing keeping her afloat. Her lamp is on the floor, at a glance it is the culprit of the noise.

He scans her room for any other and finds there are no others there but her. He breathes a sigh of relief that there are no intruders, but then his attention is brought back to her.

“Maxine?”

He can hear her sniffle, arm raising up to wipe away a tear with the back of her hand. For a moment, he had thought she was about to wave him away with the action, but she doesn’t.

“Adam?”

And then he’s by her side, standing at the edge of the bed before he’s registered his movement. Again.

He was so responsible in his actions before her and now he finds she’s whittling away at the careful control he’s held onto for centuries since they’ve spent the past months in Wayhaven.

He doesn’t reach out to her like he wants. Like he needs to, to know that she is alright. To comfort her when she clearly needs it. He holds back that far, keeps his control in check.

_She reaches out instead._

He stiffens at the sudden movement of her, fingers gripping into the front of his thin shirt near his stomach as he hears a sob shake through her. He’s not even sure if she’s seen that it’s him through the tears.

Worry floods him in that moment, wondering what could have possibly happened to have the sensible - yet stubborn - Detective he knew reacting in this way.

Gradually Adam softens, moving to sit at the side of the bed and lets her sink into his shoulder. He isn’t sure what he should be doing with his hands. He keeps them at his sides, but he can feel the itch in his fingers to hold her. 

He lets her cry, body slowly stopping the shaking as the hiccups of her breaths get farther and farther apart. He doesn’t really keep track of how long they sit there like this, but it’s when he finally does wrap an arm around her, hand resting on her shoulder - _it was the most proper place for him to rest it_ \- that she shakes herself from the moment.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you all wet.” She motions to the tear stains on the dark grey material on his chest with one hand, wiping her cheeks with the other as she pulls away from his embrace.

“It’s of no concern, _truly_.” He gives a small smile, if only to reassure her as he tilts his head in question - hoping she will lead the way if she wants to talk.

With one last swipe under her eyes, she takes a deep swallow before speaking. “I deal with sleep paralysis.”

And there it is. A simple answer to the question he hadn’t even had to ask.

“I don’t know if you know what it is, but I can’t - my brain is awake, but my body is still asleep and I can’t move, I can’t speak, but I’m still seeing parts of my dream. Well… it was a nightmare tonight.”

“Yes, I am aware of the condition, though I cannot say I have experienced it myself.” He stops there, not wanting to press forward unless she leads the way.

She remains silent for a moment, contemplating her next words. “Sometimes it’s bad and it takes me a long time to shake myself loose from it, but then other times it’s not so bad. I just have to concentrate on getting just a finger to move and then I’m free of it, but lately… lately it’s been getting worse again - like when I was small.”

Adam silently berated himself for never knowing, _but then how could he have? Maybe he’d missed it in her file._

He spoke tentatively, not wanting to push for more than she wanted to share. “And what happened this time?”

“Well, as you probably heard when it happened, I was concentrating so much on getting something in my body to move, that when I actually got to again… my arm hit my lamp.” She moves from under her blanket - presumably to put the mentioned lamp to rights - exposing the pajamas she wore. If they could be even called pajamas as they amounted to the old baggy t-shirt she wore - _he made a mental note that perhaps she was a fan of ice hockey with the blue leaf on her chest_ \- and _oh…_

_Oh._

Her bottoms were simply a pair of black panties… ones that offered little in coverage and she was moving to pick up the lamp and Adam was sure he had stopped breathing by the time the lamp was back on the side table.

He cleared his throat as politely as he could as he averted his gaze - focusing on an empty spot on her wall. He willed himself to begin breathing again.

“Oh! Sorry!” Maxine covered herself back with the blankets as quickly as she could when she realized, a faint blush staining her cheeks. “I forgot.”

He continued to stare ahead. Willing his thoughts back to someplace that was entirely and wholly professional, forcing himself to remember just what he’d been asking her. “That wasn’t what I was asking before, I wasn’t asking about the lamp.”

“ _Oh_.”

“What did you see tonight?”

She looks away, seeming to not want to meet his gaze when conversations get difficult, perhaps it makes it easier for her. He certainly understands.

Her fingers run over the crescent scar on her wrist. “It was about Murphy.” She opens her mouth once, closing when she can’t find the right words to continue - _or maybe she doesn’t want to continue_ \- and Adam is just about to stop her when she continues on. “I was back strapped to that table, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything. And - and he was there.” Her voice warbles a little. “And so were you.”

Adam doesn’t quite know what to say, just feels his heart constrict at the thought that he was a part of all this.

“You - you were there with him and I couldn’t stop him from hurting you, more than the Trappers did. I couldn’t get free this time, couldn’t get us help,” The words spill out of her faster than he’s ever seen her speak. “And then I woke up just enough to know I was back in my room, but I could still see what he had done to you. And you -” 

She stops, shakes her head as her voice cracks. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” 

The tears begin to fall once more and he aches to wipe it from her cheek. 

So this time he does, focusing on the brush of his fingertips on her skin before he offers her an out by not pressing her to share more. He tries not to notice the flush that comes to her skin at the action, but with his senses it is hard not to. “You don’t have to, you do not need to say more than you wish to.”

He takes a deep breath. “But I must ask one thing, if you will allow it.”

She perks up a little, offering a small nod as he wipes one further tear away before asking what he wants to.

“What has helped you after these nights?” He doesn’t mean to when he places his hand over her wrist, covering the reminder of the night when he held her bleeding body in his arms terrified that he would never see her olive-coloured eyes open again, but he does. But she doesn’t shift away, lets his hand linger, thumb rubbing over the raised skin.

She pauses, thinking for the right words before she answers. “My agency-issued nanny Fauna - _who now I am suspecting was not as human as I thought they were -_ they’d stay with me until I fell asleep again.” She perks up as she tells him of Fauna, clearly fond of them. Adam knows little from her past beyond what she’s divulged over the past few months and working with Rebecca these past years have yielded him little in information about her own personal life. This has suited Adam fine, he intended for his working relationship with the agent to remain professional, there was hardly a need to learn anything she did not wish to share herself.

But through Maxine, he’s learned of the loneliness that both the Detective and Agent Quinn have endured over the years. He’s known that Rebecca was a widow, but hadn’t realized that Maxine had been so young when her father had passed and how she’d barely known the mother that had carried her.

He hadn’t known how their relationship had strained the longer Rebecca had stayed away, feeling more like a stranger than a mother to Maxine. Something that was slowly, thread by thread, being mended now that Maxine had become a member of Unit Bravo.

And she was right - _though Adam didn’t tell her in that moment_ \- her caretaker had been an agency member and very much not of the human variety.

“Then when I got older it and Fauna wasn’t around anymore there was someone else who’d stay.”

_She doesn’t mention his name._

Adam doesn’t want to hear that name anyways. He wills himself to not think about how that reprehensible human had once shared a bed with her.

“I know it’s a lot to ask,” she busied herself with picking at a tassel on the throw that sits on her bed with the hand not still being held by his own, one of the few warmer items she’s added to her usually minimalist style, “but… well… would you mind staying a little longer?”

Adam doesn’t move. He should say no. And when he hesitates, she slowly removes her wrist from his touch.

“I might as well get up. I doubt I’m going to sleep now.” Maxine puts her face in her hands, thumbs rubbing against her temples in frustration and groans. “But I need to sleep, I have a meeting with Captain Sung in the morning and then it’s a split shift after at the station.”

And then she hesitates before she speaks again, peeking up through her fingers. Her words are slow, tentative, quiet in their ask. “I might be able to attempt sleep if you - _if someone_ \- is here.”

_He knows he should say no._

_Needs to say no._

A small frown begins to cross her lips. “I can ask Farah if it’s too much, I’m sure she wouldn’t mi -”

“ _Yes_.”

And suddenly the small smile he receives in return makes this moment of weakness worth it.

He means to settle down in the cushioned chair by the skylight in her room, even get up from the edge of the bed to do so, but then she looks up at him, her own green eyes bright from the redness around them from her tears, and he finds he doesn’t move further.

“You’re allowed to stay here.” She pats the empty space on the bed beside her and something bolts down his spine that he doesn’t quite recognize anymore since it has been so long since he’s last felt it. “I couldn’t - that’s not fair to you to sleep in a chair, Adam.”

It’s hard to argue with her over that. He finds that even though every logical thought is begging him not to, his feet are leading him to the other side of the bed.

He gives a curt nod before sitting at the edge. When he finally settles in bedside her, he’s thankful that The Agency splurged on Queen sized beds so that he could have some space away from her - _even though there was no need for them to have more than singles_.

He stays on top of her blankets, not wanting to intrude further into her bed than he already has.

And he certainly has. He hadn’t imagined earlier in the evening, staring up at his hand raised to the ceiling, that he’d be ending his night beside Detective Maxine Quinn. A Maxine Quinn who is wearing less clothing than he had anticipated when he’d made the decision to check in on her.

He tries to occupy his mind with their surroundings, inspecting the ways that she’s made the room her own. Nate and Farah had attempted to make the room as similar in style to her apartment as they could, but there’s extra touches in the space now. Adam hadn’t seen it since the day before Maxine had first been shown The Warehouse, hadn’t dared entered her space now that it was truly hers.

But there’s makeup and toiletries on the mirrored dresser, a patterned scarf is haphazardly thrown over the reflective surface and Adam wonders if it is because of their last case.

_He doesn’t ask._

There’s some books on the shelf across the room, he’s not surprised to see a variety of older paperback detective fiction novels, some supernatural history books that Nate had loaned her, some fashion magazines from Farah, and then he feels his heart beat pick up pace when he sees a beginner textbook on learning Latin.

He averts his gaze back to the bed and there she is curled up beside him, choosing to face him as she wiggles herself deeper into the blankets.

Soon she’s wiggled herself even closer to him, pressing against his arm and she mumbles a quiet, “Is this okay?”

A low croaking _yes_ comes out of his throat, feeling his heart racing at her proximity. He’s of course fine with it, especially if this is what she requires to feel safe after her night tonight. As her Commanding Agent, it’s his duty to ensure that she’s taken care of - in both physical and mental aspects. That’s what he tells himself, not wanting to admit to the voice in the back of his mind that sighs in relief at her touch against his arm.

Once his pulse has settled once more, he muses that it’s the first time that they've interacted without arguing… _well, the first time he remembers clearly anyways_.

When Nate asked him why Maxine was asking him to translate a Latin phrase, Adam’s heart had fallen into his stomach. Nate knew there was only one reason why she would be asking, only one person she would have heard the phrase from.

_Tu omina._

_You are everything._

Adam hates how he’d said it, riding high on the medication from the agency to soothe his pain and how he barely remembered it through the fog, but he’s never meant any other string of words that he’s said more, his careful restraint having loosened completely just the once.

He smiles when he hears the first deeper breath escape from her, relieved that sleep may have found her at last. He barely even thinks about the action when he leans to press his lips against her forehead, wishing her only peaceful dreams.

He starts when her eyes flash open, Maxine having not been asleep at all.

_That careful restraint had loosened completely once more and this time he did not have the medication to fall back on._

“Adam?”

He wasn’t sure what to do.

He wanted to run, wanted to forget what had just happened. But she was here, and a smile was spreading across her beautiful face.

She spoke quietly. “You can kiss me again. If you want.”

Every muscle of his body had frozen.

He wasn’t sure how long he laid there motionless, it could have been milliseconds and it could have been hours.

She sighs, but it’s not the one that he’s used to, the one that leads to them yelling and slamming doors. This one is different, this one is filled with... _longing_.

“Well, if you don’t want to... can I kiss you?”

He wills even the slightest nod of his head.

_He wanted…_

_He wasn’t sure._

And then his heart speaks for him, another piece loosened of the restraint he’s held onto for so long. “ _Yes._ ”

The simple word that has gotten him into far more trouble than he’s ever imagined tonight.

And when her lips touch his he stiffens for the barest of moments, but he doesn’t pull away. Instead, he slowly, tentatively, reaches up a hand to the base of her skull, fingers sliding even slower into the base of her dark hair.

It is easy, kissing her. She tastes of mint - what he could only assume was her toothpaste - _why was he thinking of toothpaste at a time like this?_

He puts his complete focus back to her, the softness of her lips pressing against his. He can feel her smile against him and it’s when she slowly opens her mouth that he groans.

This is certainly not how he had imagined this night. He’d imagined another night spent alone, spent burying down everything Maxine has been lifting out of his chest over the past few months. Of everything he never dreamed he would ever feel again. He thought that part of him was gone, but here it was.

And here they were, pressed together on her bed with a blanket and some thin layers of clothing between them, lips locked together for more time than he’s kept track of.

“Adam,” she sighs and he catalogues it in his mind as his favourite way his name has ever sounded in all these years.

She’s greedy in her kisses, barely taking a breath before she’s back again. But so is he. Suddenly the dam has broken and he doesn’t want to hold back, doesn’t want to allow the walls he’s constructed to keep her out anymore.

“I don’t want to stop kissing you.”

He doesn’t either, but he understands the limitations of her human state. She does still need sleep. “You,” he clears his throat, “you have a meeting with the Captain in the morning.”

She grumbles her agreement, but rather than laying back down where she had been, she moves to lay on his shoulder with a question on her lips before she fully settles. “Is this alright?”

_How could he ever say no to her, when his heart feels this full around her?_

“Yes.”

If only it could stay as easy as this, nothing beyond this room. No dangers that she needs to be protected from. And if he wasn’t a part of that danger, it would be so easy to love her.

Well, it was easy to love her.

He just couldn’t stand the thought of losing her.

_“...the darkness to come may swallow you both.”_

He takes a deep breath, settling in further to the mattress, but still above the blankets, as he tries to shut Sanja’s warning out of his mind.

He sees another small smile cross her lips before her eyes close, this time for the remainder of the night. And one last murmur escapes her lips as she drifts off, “Thank you.”

* * *

Maxine wakes up, fingers feeling around blindly for him, ignoring the blare of her alarm that had pulled her from a dream, a rather pleasant one this time.

One that involved more of Agent du Mortain’s lips.

But here’s nothing but the linen of her sheets beneath her fingertips.

He’s gone.

_Was this all just a dream too?_

It had felt like a dream with Adam finally - _finally_ \- was moving somewhere forward with his feelings for her. He’d kissed her back! It was never clear where she stood with him, but maybe, just maybe they were headed in the proper direction now, the direction her heart so sorely wanted them to head to together.

Maybe she was just dreaming - as if that would have ever happened, Adam finally showing how he felt. She sighs and shuts off her alarm. As if Adam would ever finally do that.

She swings her legs over the edge of her bed, ready to admit that this was just another overactivity of her subconscious, ready to move on to another day where she’s fighting away the pain of him ignoring her.

But then, the door to her bathroom opens and he’s standing there, Adam du Mortain is standing in her bathroom doorway and she knows that everything was real.

_That kiss was real._

And now he’s standing there holding a glass of water that he awkwardly hands to her. “I apologize, I did not mean to overstep. I thought you might have needed something when you woke up.”

“You didn’t,” she said it almost too quickly. “I mean for overstepping, you didn’t. I’m glad you - I mean… thank you for staying.”

“It was nothing. If I can help bring some relief to a member of our unit, I am more than happy to do so.”

Maxine’s heart sinks - _is this just the next moment in the series of Adam’s retractions of his feelings for her?_

“Is that all? Just because I’m a member of the unit?”

He walks towards the bed, plants a kiss on her forehead as he’d done the night before, lingering long enough for her heart to skip _several_ beats. When he pulls away, he smiles with more ease than she’s ever seen - she even swears she sees the shadow of dimples in his cheeks.

“You know it isn’t, Maxine. You’re much more than that to me.”

And with that… he was gone.

* * *

Adam leans against the hallway wall as he closes the door behind him, quicker than Maxine would have been able to see.

He’s not sure if the weight has lifted from his shoulders from hiding every single thing he’s felt for Maxine Quinn over the past months - _rather poorly as Farah consistently points out_ \- but he feels lighter. 

It’s a blissful moment of peace, until the crushing weight of his feelings come back in a wave over him, of the complexities he’s now added to his life. To their lives. Every single thought that he’s been trying to keep away since the moment he laid eyes on Maxine Quinn and knew he would never be the same. _How will this change Unit Bravo, his work with Rebecca, Maxine’s safety, will he put her in far more danger -_

“Late night, Adam?” Morgan’s words mercifully stop the stream of thoughts that are moving far too quickly through his mind. The other vampire is leaning against the hallway wall with a cigarette dangling from one hand, a smirk on her lips.

Farah isn’t far behind her, grinning from ear to ear when she sees Adam, “Here comes the knight in shining armour now, betcha Max is doing a lot better now.” She wiggles her brows and he fights the urge to roll his eyes.

“She is in good health.” He clears his throat. “However, what transpired is between Detective Quinn and myself.” 

And then he smiles - _prompting a look of shock from the youngest vampire, as if she believed it wasn’t even a thing she thought his face could do_ \- before he turns and heads towards the training room. 

The smile doesn’t leave his face.

**Author's Note:**

> [Check out my writing masterpage on tumblr!](https://witchqueencirce.tumblr.com/writing) Thank you for reading! ❤


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